Brain Training

Attention training for improving tinnitus

A core method of improving your tinnitus is to train your brain to switch attention away from the Tinnitus sound(s) to the natural sounds around you. As part of that process we introduce a range of different types of sounds including; partial masking, relaxing, attention refocus and finally adaptation.

In this Brain Training section we introduce you to a specialist treatment we have developed and tested through the Hearing & Tinnitus Clinic and the research team at the University of Auckland. It is called "object Identification and attention training" and in simple terms you listen to a series of short sound clips where you will hear one sound in your left ear, one in your right ear and another in both ears.

You have to identify and write down the name of the sounds and where you heard the sound (which ear, or ears). As you work through the series of exercises your brain has to work harder & harder to detect and identify the sounds as we superimpose other noises that act as a interference, or distraction. Through this process the brain becomes more and more focused on trying to hear and identify the three special sounds and is being retrained to ignore your tinnitus.

We recommend you complete the brain training in 15 separate sessions each of around 20 to 30 minutes over a three week period. You will need headphones to listen to the individual sound files which are only 20 - 40 seconds long. You can download all the sound files to your computer, smartphone or MP3 player for each session, or you could listen to them directly from the Tinnitus Tunes website.

We have provided two free sample sound files that are from the early part of the training, so relatively simple examples that will give you a taste for what is involved. The training comes with full written and audio instructions. There are 15 sessions in total and links to all 15 sessions are given below.